


i don't wanna talk about it, i don't wanna think about it

by agentpolastri



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Slow Burn, this is a LOT of pining, this is the msot underrated ship thank u., wlw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23570995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentpolastri/pseuds/agentpolastri
Summary: Maya returns from Athenas earlier than expected. Lilith continues her work as the commander of the Raiders. This is the in-between, and the aftermath.As per usual, nothing ever goes as planned, especially on a planet like Pandora.
Relationships: Lilith/Maya (Borderlands), Mayalilith - Relationship
Comments: 11
Kudos: 29





	1. it's not you

A flash of blue hair—Lilith knew it was Maya before her face even came into view. She’d recognize the tall, lanky frame of the Athenian _anywhere._ Dressed in a complete uniform of black with an accompanying hood, time had treated her exceedingly well. Like, really well. 

Like. She was _hot._

Not to say that she wasn’t before, but there were some nuances that had shifted in the years that had separated the two of them. The difference in the way she held herself: towering, a column of lithe muscle, but relaxed unlike the inherent stiffness she carried in the days of the past. The way she walked: confident strides that only whispered of what her scuffed and dirty boots had _really_ witnessed. Finally, how she spoke: Maya’s intonations. Her lips curved around every syllable that they produced, her voice a song among the cacophony of l—okay, Lilith was definitely getting carried away.

Maybe it was something to do with the window on her chest—the thought of it made Lilith glow. Quite literally. An intense heat radiated from under the collar of her bomber jacket as every curve and line of her siren markings flared up in a remarkable display of orange. Like lava, she could feel the etchings on every inch of exposed pale expanse begin to itch, and knew with an acute ferocity that it was a dead giveaway to what exactly she was feeling. 

_Oh God, oh God, oh God. Holy shit. Get ahold of yourself!_

A pile of haphazardly stacked boxes temporarily gave the commander some shelter as she tried to control the ridiculous palpitations in her chest. Flashes of a warm voice, quiet smile, and receptive eyes did little to help her cause. The last time she had felt something quite like this had been... well, not since Roland. Though she had had her piece to say in response to his death, and had inherited a role she did not ask for but resolved to fully encompass regardless, even now, there was a soreness that enveloped her heart when she thought of him. 

Lilith figured that she owed him this much. 

Her apprehensive gaze looked through a gap in the boxes at the only other woman who remotely knew of her struggle. They had initially bonded over their sirenhood, but when you save the world as you know it together, it often brings two people closer together than pushing them apart.  
Lilith’s mind flickered, albeit briefly, to Jack and his band of vault hunters. She would ignore that particular case for her own benefit. This was different, she reminded herself.

Roland would want her to be happy, anyways. Right?

 _Okay, that’s enough,_ she frantically thought, clearly becoming too engrossed in her own thoughts to be making any life-altering decisions just yet. She haphazardly yanked the offending arm closer to her body as if to say _out of sight, out of mind._ That familiar voice—it was coming closer. She must have been talking to someone else. Moxxi, maybe, or even just a random civilian, but she couldn’t picture that after her entire ordeal at the monasteries. Crowds of people—no, strangers—begging for a word, a breath, the brush of her robes against their fingertips…

Lilith had relished in the attention, the reverence, the respect she had gotten as the firehawk before the arrival of Maya and the others. But seeing the deeply embedded disgust when the latter spoke of her time on Athenas—it made her reconsider, if only slightly. It really was twisted, in a sense. Luckily, Lilith had created a trap that she could have burned to the ground any minute she wanted to, and did, with the help of the vault hunters. Maya never had been that lucky. 

Once again, she brought her thoughts to the present. Sooner or later, she’d have to greet Maya. What would she say? _Hey, sorry, it’s kind of awkward seeing you again because I’ve been in love with you this entire time?_

Right.

“Heeey, Lilith! What’s up with hiding behind a bunch of boxes? Maya’s been looking for you everywhere!” A sudden, grating voice caught her attention, and she sharply glared at Claptrap. As was his habit, he didn’t get the cue. While he rambled on and on, she approached him, fully prepared to hurl a stray bottle at him to make him shut the fuck up before her cover was blown.

A distinct shadow slowly ambled over, looming over her head. 

“Were you hiding from me?” Came an amused question. A light, feminine voice spoke somewhere above her right ear. Lilith was, to put it mildly, terrified, because she had apparently lost the ability to speak. Or, at the very least, make sense while doing it. Slowly, she turned around, and could finally take in the sight of Maya physically in front of her for the first time in what felt like forever. 

“Maya! Thank God you’re here, I need you to take a look at my wheel socket because it’s been leaking this weird fluid and basically every mechanic or half-mechanic refuses to talk to me which is _super_ depressing! I wonder why?” Leave it to Claptrap to ruin what could have been a moment. The Athenian herself tore her gaze away to confront the robot, but all she did was plaster on a patient, awkward smile. Read here: she wanted to die. 

“Maybe later, Claptrap,” she replied, essentially verbally waving him off. He said something else, but Lilith didn’t like to make a habit of listening to him very often or she’d lose more brain cells than she wanted to during the run of a single day. Maya turned her attention back to the woman in front of her and raised an eyebrow, still waiting for a response. The commander could feel the heat beginning to rise up again, but she frustratedly tampered it down. Come _on._

“I was hiding from the robot,” Lilith blurted, a grin that was more like a baring of teeth adorning her features. She could already see what was surely doubt and a generous amount of amusement in Maya’s eyes, along with something else that she couldn’t quite identify. 

_Don’t dwell on that._

“It’s pretty nice to see you somewhere that isn’t over the ECHO, I gotta say,” the redhead stated wryly. Then, she added, more quietly: “I did miss you around here, though, vault hunter.”

Maya smiled a real, genuine smile, unlike the one from before. “I missed you too,” she said, as if it was a well known fact that had been written in countless history books. There was something new here. Both women could sense it. Lilith was afraid to label it, to even think about the implications or the possibility that maybe she was overthinking this way more than she should have been. 

But it was new. It promised more. 

Just knowing that _immediately_ made her suggest that they go to Moxxi’s for some well-deserved drinks and catch-up.


	2. are you pistol-whipped?

Coming to the backburner proved to be… less than eventful. In reality, what did Maya expect? She hadn’t contacted anyone prior to arriving on Pandora aside from Moxxi, and that was in the interest of room and board that hadn’t been desecrated already by a bandit that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If anything, it was for Ava—she wouldn’t subject the girl to the wilds of Pandora unless absolutely necessary. Athenas was a luxury compared to the boons of this planet. Besides, they wouldn’t be staying for long if Maya could help it. She had unfinished business on Athenas: its complete remediation. 

When Maya left that godforsaken planet, she had sworn she would never go back to it. For a while, she succumbed to a life of crime-driven frivolities on Pandora—she thought of it more like breaking from the monastery’s chains, rebelling against every holier-than-thou discipline they had weighed her down with purely out of anger and spite. She was powerful, but she wasn’t a _God_ or a _deity._ Like everyone else, she was privy to the whims of a pleasure-driven life. 

Fortunately for her, the urge to veer away from the rails didn’t last for long. She had things to do, information to find, jobs to be done and money to be had. Hence the beginning of her vault-hunting career on Pandora. 

Never did she think that she would have ended up where she did.

Moxxi’s new set-up still held the same je-ne-sais-quoi of the previous reincarnation in Sanctuary. The flashy neon lights, the bizarre Pandoran variety of techno music, the slot machines that may or may not have actually functioned as a secret door to her garage—nothing had changed. The woman was capable of setting up almost _anywhere._

Briefly, Maya wondered if there was a garage for Moxxi situated neatly behind the wall this time around. 

“Hey sugar, it’s nice to see you dropping in,” Moxxi drawled. While the sirens took their seats at the counter, she slid two drinks across the counter. The deep violet concoction bubbled in their glasses with a faint glow. Lilith appeared nonplussed, but Maya raised an eyebrow in mild concern. She had no reason to fear Moxxi—she hadn’t gotten on her bad side, and hopefully never would—but the new addition made her take a noticeable pause.

_Where the hell was the glow coming from?_

As if reading her thoughts, Moxxi continued, “It’s a booster, honey. Don’t worry about it. It’s on the house.” She winked at the two of them before leaving to attend to her own devices somewhere behind the counter. Out of the corner of her eye, Maya could see Lilith shifting on her stool, looking distinctly miffed as she stirred the contents of her drink. 

“What’s wrong?” The Athenian asked, pressing her lips together to prevent smiling ridiculously at her. It was hard to keep a neutral expression around the other woman most of the time. She could remember snorting at jokes that Lilith would crack over the ECHO comms during a mission, or sniping the head off of a psycho to the sound of melodious laughing in her ear. 

Lilith found it particularly funny when she shot the mask off of a shotgun midget, leaving them disgruntled and rattled. They would swing their shotgun back and forth wildly, the weight of it nearly careening them off of their legs as they circled around for the suspect. Sometimes they would even blame it on a fellow bandit, and the entire camp would erupt into chaos as the vault hunters darted through in the background. 

“Moxxi never gave _me_ a free drink. Maybe I should start bringing you more often,” the redhead grumbled, but her luminous eyes held a faint spark of complete _bullshit._ Maya was glad to see that she hadn’t changed too much in the years that had separated them. There were times when they would lapse into silence over the ECHO, and the Firehawk almost appeared somber. Tired, even. Not now. Laughing, she lightly kicked the other woman’s foot, shrugging exaggeratedly as she brought the glass to her lips. 

“She must like me more,” Maya quipped dryly after placing her glass back down on the counter. That earned her a sharp gaze accompanied by a distinct rolling of the eyes. She could only meet her gaze in response, almost daring her to say something. _Anything._ Lilith chewed on the inside of her cheek for a long moment, then broke their locked gazes, looking downwards and tapping her nails on the wooden counter. Inhaling, she allowed her attention to return to the other siren on a more serious note.

“What brings you back to Pandora, then?” 

Maya had known that the question was coming at some point, but hadn’t been prepared for the intensity of the quiet, investigative force behind it nonetheless. It was the question of the day. She couldn’t have expected Lilith to let this slide, what with her randomly turning back up on a planet she had left with no foreseeable reason to come back. The commander was privy to what she had been up to on Athenas. Of course it wouldn’t add up. 

She pursed her lips.

“Oz kits,” she finally replied. It was cagey, both of them knew it. _Vague._ It wouldn’t do well with Lilith, who now sat across from her with mild disbelief on her face. She couldn’t tell if the Athenian was being serious or not, but with every passing moment of silence, it gradually dawned on her that _yes,_ she very much _was._ Lilith straightened, leaning an arm against the counter as she regarded Maya almost critically. 

“You can get Oz kits almost anywhere.” Dry. Skeptical. Maya could see that she wasn’t going to get out of this conversation without seemingly dropping the bomb. Really, she should have approached it with more tact rather than making herself seem suspicious. Her current strategy of (accidentally) deliberately making it seem like she was withholding important information was only aggravating Lilith. Sighing, she nodded.

“From Janey Springs,” she supplied, leaving the rest of the sentence unspoken. A genuine discomfort had taken hold of her body as she anticipated the redhead’s reaction. It didn’t disappoint—rather, it was what she expected. She bristled. Whatever energy that had been thrumming through the commander immediately ceased all activity. Her foot, previously bobbing along to the bar’s beat, froze. The rhythmic tapping of her nails stopped. Her eyes narrowed. 

“And… Athena Springs,” Maya finished.

“She’s dangerous,” Lilith immediately pointed out, taking none too kindly to this new information. Maya sucked in a breath, knowing very well what history the gladiator had with the commander. None of it was _good,_ by any standard. Lilith had tried to _kill_ her. Things had changed since then, but there was something in the commander’s voice that hinted to her that they had unfinished business. Aside from that—and this could have been her simply overanalyzing it—but she seemed almost sorrowful behind all of the anger. Maya’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Lilith’s glass hitting the counter again.

“How do you know it isn’t a ploy or something?” She demanded, breath ghosting the blue haired woman’s face. She immediately leaned back, realizing that she had gradually leaned closer to Maya during their conversation. Lilith frowned to herself. “I don’t trust them, Maya.”

“I know you don’t,” the blue haired woman assured her. “But it’s not a ploy. I’ve been in correspondence with Janey for a long time. She’s been tinkering with the Oz kits to make them more efficient. I could _use_ something like that.” The corner of her lips turned up, if only slightly. “I can handle myself. You know this.”

A long silence passed between them. 

“You’re right,” Lilith finally relented. She chuckled to herself and allowed a hand to run down her face. “God, this isn’t even what I was going to _talk_ to you about. I have a mission tomorrow. I was going to ask if you wanted to tag along.” She shrugged her shoulders. “You know, for old time’s sake, or whatever. Unless you’re too busy for a lowly vault hunter like me,” she grinned. 

Maya snorted. “I’m sure I can spare a day or two, _commander._ ” Visibly, the red head preened at the use of her title, her grin only widening. The pure, undiluted satisfaction was almost contagious, and the taller woman found herself wryly smiling back at her. Tomorrow, then, they would venture out into the dangerous barren lands of Pandora. The thought of it made her stomach somersault in anticipation. It was going to be a _hell_ of a day. She could already tell. 

The rooms Moxxi had claimed for Maya and Ava were a little tight in quarters. As someone who had slept on the ground before, or in the back of a light runner, Maya couldn’t find it in herself to be remotely bothered by it. Skag candles littered the bedside table, burning off the oil and providing the closest thing to a _good_ scent that Pandora could naturally provide. The sheets on the beds were clean and unstained, and there were no visible spatters on the walls. Moxxi really did pull out all of the stops—or maybe her standards were set obnoxiously low after spending much of her time in bandit territory on the planet. She couldn’t tell.

It was strangely quiet when Maya returned from her discussion with Lilith at the bar. She ventured through her room, then down the hallway, pressing her ear to Ava’s door. First, there was nothing discernable that she could hear, before the strangest of sounds greeted her ear: her _own_ voice, crackling slightly from the transmission of an ECHO. _Her_ ECHO. She froze, heat prickling the back of her neck as hot embarrassment crawled up her skin. This was a recording she knew well. 

**MAYA:** _I’m not too sure what’s going to happen with it yet. I’m going to have to wait it out. I’ve already got my hands full._

**LILITH:** _Yeah, that sounds like the best thing to do._

[ _silence._ ]

**LILITH:** _So..._

**MAYA:** _Hm?_

**LILITH:** _… What are you wearing?_

**MAYA:** _Uh, my jumpsuit. Why?_

**LILITH:** _Just wondering._

**MAYA:** _Oh, alright._ [ _pause._ ] _What are_ you _wearing, then?_

**LILITH:** _I’m_ so _glad that you asked._

Ava’s door flew open, revealing a very irate looking siren in the doorway. Maya immediately stomped over to where the younger girl was sitting with the ECHO device—along with several other of Maya’s things—and snatched it straight out of her hands, fumbling with it and turning it off to shove it into her jacket pocket. 

“ _What_ were you _doing?_ ” Maya half-shouted, half-asked. Her eyes flickered to the desk, where several other recordings and writing of hers were splayed about. She quickly went over there, gathering it all together in her arms. Ava let out a huge, exaggerated sigh, pushing off of the wall in her seat to lean on the back two legs. Her arms crossed tightly as she glared at a spot on the wall, as she was wont to do. She chose to ignore Maya’s question, getting straight to the source of the problem in her eyes.

“You won’t _tell_ me anything!” 

Maya laughed surprisedly. “I already _told_ you, we’re just here to pick something up. We’re not staying for long, Ava.” 

The teenager in question swivelled around in her chair, looking at Maya very pointedly. “Who’s the woman on the ECHO, then? Your girlfriend? You talked to her a lot.”

A sputter. 

“W— _no._ No. She’s just a friend. You know you’re invading my privacy, _right?_ ”

Ava shrugged in response, apparently still not satisfied with that answer. As if to prove her point, she immediately hit back rather nastily with: “That didn’t sound like very _friend_ things that you were doing, you know.”

Maya stood there, belongings in hand, fuming at the teenager. Try all that she could, nothing witty came to mind. Instead, she whirled around and left the room, slamming the door and returning to her own quarters before she could manage to embarrass herself in front of her apprentice any more than that. Ava was a hard hand to be dealt with, but she had potential. Admittedly, she sometimes had to remind herself of that fact, but it was better for the younger girl to have some guidance. She didn’t want her to feel lost like she did.

She didn’t want her to be taken advantage of like she was. So many of her years were wasted at that damned monastery. Here she was years later, trying to upend Athenas from the inside out and rid it of the corruption that had plagued her eons ago.

The ECHO and the other papers ended up haphazardly dumped on her own desk. Upon giving it a second thought, she stuffed it into the drawers, at least so that it wasn’t open for all to see (see here: Ava). At last, she perched on the bed, aiming for some meditation before she retired to sleep. 

What was supposed to be a short, uneventful trip was quickly unravelling into much, much more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOWDY as u can see. we're on a roll  
> lmk your thoughts as per usual!! i Love themst………......……..  
> and a shout out 2 my other set of wives: janey and athena springs


	3. box after box and you're still by my side

The sun rose to see another day as Lilith hauled a dusty tarp off of one of the bandit trucks the raiders had seized a while ago. For the mission that they were about to embark on, a light runner would call much more attention, and that wasn’t what she was looking for. Of course, it was up to the bandits whether or not they wanted to deal with a truck holding two sirens. That was their shit to shoot. Most of them had a death wish, anyways, but Lilith sure didn’t, and she was positive that Maya didn’t, either, especially upon finding out about the _kid_ she was toting around.

Admittedly, her first thought was something along the lines of _did she find someone else?_ But it didn’t take long for her to realize that _whoever_ the girl was—she looked nothing like Maya. Like, really. Absolutely nothing. Plus, something gave her the hunch that Moxxi might have spilled the beans to her if that was the case, since she had apparently hooked Maya up with the accommodations to stay at the backburner in the first place. 

Or maybe she was just trying to reassure herself. 

It would be unlike Maya to purposefully start something without taking into account the future possibilities. The child was too old to be Maya’s directly. Perhaps she was related to her somehow, but even that was far-fetched given that the siren had never mentioned any siblings or family that she really knew of and was raised with _monk_ in the first place. It could be a temporary contract, or something. Maybe she was just working with her.

_Come on, Lilith. If you were a monk-siren-badass, why would you be dragging around a child?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Now alerted, the commander spotted a figure vaulting itself into the vehicle without further notice—right into the passenger's seat. Lilith snorted to herself, watching as Maya checked the backseat and wiped the dust off of what she assumed to be the rearview mirror. What could she say? She hasn’t had a reason to bring out the bandit truck before now. Hopefully it still worked. It would be a lie for her to say that she thought far enough ahead to verify the damned thing could roll for more than a mile. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” She asked once she got close enough to be within earshot. A flicker of confusion passed over Maya’s expression as she threw a leg up, almost as if solidifying her place in the vehicle.

“Sitting.” She was definitely confused. Lilith could almost visualize the question mark in her voice as blue hues stared at her expectantly.

Cute.

“No, you’re not.” Lilith opened the door and immediately began pushing the blue-haired woman into the driver’s seat. An undignified grunt left her lips as she wedged herself on half of the seat before turning and looking at Maya with an expectant stare. She raised a single hand, then flicked her fingers away in the universal sign of ‘move over’. The other woman rolled her eyes before groaning dramatically, getting behind the steering wheel and starting the truck up.

“What, can’t handle the rough roads of Pandora, _Firehawk?_ ” She lightly jabbed, glancing at Lilith while she turned the key. An ungodly rumble vibrated the entire truck before Maya steered them out of the rickety garage. A suffocating heat immediately hit them, even as a breeze picked up while they sailed over the barely-existent road on the jagged terrain. Miles upon miles of orange-hued rock and distant dust storms surrounded them. Very home-y. 

Lilith snorted. “I’ve spent enough time in light runners and trucks for a lifetime. It’s your turn to do the driving, vault hunter. Got it?”

Maya could only snicker in response, even when the redhead elbowed her.

She had missed this. The banter. The _company._ When you were forced to save the world together, there wasn’t much out there that would create a better bond. 7 years had been 7 years too long, even if it meant coming back to a planet that constantly reeked of blood and skag shit. It was with a startling realization that when Maya was homesick, it wasn’t Athenas she thought about: it was Pandora. Rather, the people on it.

… Well, a select portion of them. The one that wasn’t trying to kill her for a chunk of eridium. Or a mansion built from tiny mansions. _Thanks, Jack._

The main fear Maya had harboured was that it was going to be unbearably awkward. She had made every effort to keep in touch with Lilith over the ECHO during her absence, but as all things, it wasn’t meant to last forever. They had fallen out of contact the last couple of years as the two of them continued on with their lives. Maya focused on Athenas while Lilith continued her work with the Raiders. Part of her wondered if the redhead sitting next to her held any ill will because of it. If she did, she didn’t show any signs.

Lilith had remained suspiciously quiet for much of this time. Thinking she dozed off with Maya at the wheel, she glanced over at her, only to immediately meet her piercing gaze. The skin under her collar suddenly felt hot and mildly uncomfortable. She deduced it was the suffocating heat, even if it got worse when her companion slowly piqued an eyebrow. 

“People usually look at the road when they’re driving, you know,” Lilith remarked. She crossed her arms and leaned back to prop her feet on the dash. There was a quality to her voice that sounded foreign, an undertone to her words that the Athenian couldn’t place. It was with a startle that Maya realized that she was _right._ Her head snapped back to survey the road with much more enthusiasm than a few moments prior.

“I thought you were asleep,” the blue-haired woman weakly attempted to justify as the commander chuckled. She could work her way out of this one—but wait. It wasn’t even a lie. She _did_ think that Lilith was asleep. So why was she getting so _embarrassed?_ Maybe she _did_ feel awkward after the prolonged separation. It was the only explanation. 

“That’s what they _all_ say.” 

Maya counted her lucky stars when she realized that Lilith had no intention of following up on the entire ordeal. Or that’s what she thought, at least, until she caught the commander smirking at her while they were disembarking the bandit truck. The camp itself could be seen on the horizon, all mismatched junk piled up haphazardly to create the standard Pandoran brand of buildings. The sketchy part was that there wasn’t a single soul in sight. Normally bandits would be patrolling the place, or you’d hear the distant cacophony of all of their voices mingling together while they did… whatever bandits do in their free time. 

It made Maya turn to Lilith just as she was loading up on ammo. “You didn’t tell me what we’re even _here_ for.”

“Who said we needed a reason?” Lilith asked without looking up. At the silence that greeted her, she straightened, seeing the unamusement on Maya’s face. She sucked in a breath. “We need to pick up electronic supplies. Circuits, fuses... stuff like that. Some guy named _Motherfuckboard_ —or something else equally as stupid—is holed up in that camp.” 

Maya pursued her lips. “It looks deserted.” She raised the scope of her sniper to her eye, trying to detect anything that even resembled bandit activity. Not a soul. She was almost positive that she even saw a tumbleweed blow by. The lack of activity was truly unnerving. Something felt ... off. She lowered the gun.

“I don’t like it. I can’t see _anything._ What’s the plan?” 

“We’ll stick together and take it slow. I don’t know what’s in there.” She cocked her gun. Lilith paused and grinned at Maya, who could only do the same. It was them against the unknown, after all, and it was clear that they wouldn’t be leaving without making _some_ sort of racket. “Let’s go fuck over some bandits, Maya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a shorter chapter, but fear not! it's just gearing up for the monstrosity that the next chapter is going to be.  
> as always, leave any thoughts/comments below!
> 
> you can find me at @agentpolastri on tumblr.


	4. you're stressing and loving me

The silence was deafening save for the occasional crunch of dirt under both of their boots as they advanced slowly towards the base camp. Lilith kept her hands gripped tightly around her shotgun as her luminous eyes surveyed the area sharply. In the distance, a sound akin to a rusty swing resonated through the camp, the low screech bringing the sirens to a temporary halt. Maya wordlessly crept forward, only to immediately hone in on a dangling chain from one of the many haphazard platforms of a bandit shack. 

The gate to the premises loomed over them. Maya clicked her tongue, even going so far as to lean over to get a better view of… relative desolation. Even for Pandoran standards. The sun was beating down on her with suffocating heat and she could feel the sweat beginning to collect on her skin under the dark clothing she wore. 

Lilith sighed. “This is really fucking weird,” she said, continuing forward into the empty camp. She had expected bandits at every corner, even pouring out of the windows and doors to protect what should have been a stash of valuables. What did she get instead? A pile of shit? 

“Let’s look around anyways, see if we find anything,” Maya suggested. She ventured to the dumpsters to flick open the tops and scavenge for supplies. The heat that was hitting her beforehand was stunningly absent all of a sudden—it occurred to her that maybe it was just Lilith. Given her affinity for fire and all that. 

Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much in the dumpsters aside from a few decomposing body parts. Maya groaned. Maybe this _was_ a waste of their time.

Lilith ventured to a haphazard pile of boxes, kicking them aside in mild disinterest. She scanned the general vicinity, looking for anything remotely shiny and electronic looking. That was the best guide that she really had. It was only when she spotted a weird looking lever sticking out of the ground that she began to have _some_ hope. 

“Find anything?” Maya called out, clearly becoming restless after searching the other (barren) side of the camp. 

“This thing,” Lilith replied loudly. Approaching the lever, the commander scanned their surroundings one last time before she sharply pulled on it. Silence followed and she deflated, officially coming to terms with what was definitely a dead end. Just as she was about to motion for their departure, she noticed dust clouds rising from the ground in thick wisps. 

“Nice party trick, Lilith,” Maya said dryly, but promptly cut herself off when Lilith raised a hand. Her gaze remained fixed on the ground near the middle of the camp. The dirt caved in a wide circle enveloping most of the ground in the camp, a large platform rising tall into the sky with a large droid attached to it. Inside of said droid was _one_ lonely bandit. They could handle this.  
 _Right?_

“I knew y’all sum’bitches were comin’ t’get my fuckin’ gear!” He hollered, shaking a fist at the sirens and making various obscene gestures. The platform’s top creaked and groaned before completely falling off to free the droid. Maya shot a _very_ stern, _very_ pointed look at Lilith before glancing back up at their new foe that … didn’t move a muscle. He visibly struggled inside the droid before his voice blared from a speaker somewhere in the camp.

_How the fuck did they miss that?_

“Y’all and your petty ass crimson whatever the _fucks_ can shove my fist _right_ up your _ass!_ ” The bandit screeched, raising his fist to show off a rectangular looking piece of … complicated looking … computer shit. 

Lilith pointed at him bluntly. “That’s the dude,” she mouthed. Maya nodded with a ‘no-shit’ expression on her face and promptly raised her arm to phase lock the entire contraption for relative ease. They were _sirens._ Why would they bother to struggle with this kind of shit? 

Motherfuckboard caught on quickly, immediately dropping his shit talking to frantically smash a button on the interior of the droid. Lilith watched as what must have been dozens of mounted laser guns unearthed themselves from the walls of the camp shacks—the very spots they had been poking around in earlier. Lilith bristled and watched in terror as they all quickly honed in on Maya.

“No!” Lilith yelled, bursting in quick succession to phasewalk in Maya’s place and knock her flying backwards as the bullets cascaded through the air. White hot pain flared through her side as the line of fire clipped her body. She let out a grunt, crimson blooming through her tank top as she tumbled straight into the ground. For a moment, she was paralyzed, thinking that _this_ was it. Because she had pulled a fucking _lever,_ putting _both_ of them in danger. She waited for the last flare of pain before darkness with her hand clamped to the bleeding wound on her side.

It didn’t come. 

What did come was the sensation of being phase locked—a terrifying paralysis of the limbs and a suffocating pressure on her chest. Or maybe that was just the familiar feeling of a near death experience. She couldn’t really tell. Didn’t Maya phase lock her once when she had dared to try to poke her ribs from behind? Lilith couldn’t remember. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember much of anything.

Her thoughts faded to black with only the remnants of blue hair and even bluer lips in the periphery of her mind. 

Dull pain. It pounded softly somewhere in nonexistence. It felt the way the soft red of a sunset would: pulsing. Visceral. Subtle. Lilith laid on the beach of some distant planet. The water crashed in waves and glowed a subdued teal like the readings on an Oz kit. It reminded her much of someone. A tall woman that came crashing in one day and fought by her side mere moments later. A vault hunter.

_Maya. Where was Maya?_

The name reverberated through her mind and matched the pulsing pain. It became louder and louder until it was screaming—her side was screaming. The pain. The mission. The guns. _Maya._

Lilith gasped, gulping in air as she wildly took in her surroundings, eyes only focusing on the ceiling of the bandit truck and a disgusting looking stain on the back of one of the seats. Her entire body jostled as the truck went over a particularly harsh bump. A foreign guttural noise pierced the silence of the truck before the commander realized that it came from _her._

Gunshots sounded from what Lilith thought was the back of the truck. She tried to sit up, but was immediately flattened by searing pain. Another bump was punctuated by Maya cursing in the driver’s seat as she wrenched the steering wheel to sharply turn them.

“Maya,” Lilith breathed groggily. “What the fuck is happening?” She tried to say, but it came out more like ‘wuh fuh huh’. Her body suddenly felt more secure on the seat that it laid on, and Lilith knew that she was being phase locked in place. Of course.

Darkness overtook her vision once again to the sounds of shattering glass. 

Lilith woke again, but to the stabbing sensation of a revitaliser being pumped into her bloodstream by a very pissed-off looking Athenian. She blinked slowly as her vision began to fully focus. Every one of her nerves were on _fire._ Acutely, she felt sweat dripping down the back of her neck until it met the ground that she was laying on. 

It was very dark, save for the firelight. 

“Where are we?” The redhead rasped. She didn’t attempt to sit up yet, remembering all-too-clearly what happened when she had done so in the truck. Maya only pressed her lips together and wiped Lilith’s forehead with a rag. The heat was coming off of the firehawk in waves, now. She must have been healing. 

“I don’t know,” the Athenian confessed. “Some cave. A lot happened after you went out. I had to lose the rest of Motherfuckboard’s gang. They tailed us for a long time.” Maya went silent again, shifting her weight to sit next to Lilith instead of hovering over her. The fire crackled, casting a shadow on the truck behind Maya. 

“Did w—” Lilith began, before catching and coughing violently. She hunched into herself despite the wound screaming at her from the sudden movement. Maya was at her side in an instant, hand on her back to guide her back down to the position she laid out in before. 

“Save it for tomorrow,” Maya said. Her eyes were soft, but her expression was tight, lips pressed together in a line. She withdrew once again once she was satisfied that Lilith wasn’t about to self-implode. Lilith didn’t reply. She was sapped after a movement as simple as that. It was at that moment that something told her they were in trouble. She made note to thank Maya in the morning.

They lapsed into silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you bet ur ass this has not be revised because I wrote it all in one night oops
> 
> leave ur thoughts/comments below!!!  
> find me at @agentpolastri on tumblr.


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